After nearly three years since the deal was first announced, Microsoft is finally set to purchase Activision Blizzard as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) approved the acquisition, and that was the last major hurdle for the biggest-ever gaming deal to close.
The UK’s regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), said it gave the go-ahead after the restructured deal substantially addressed its earlier concerns.
Microsoft, who makes the Xbox, announced the biggest gaming deal in history in early 2022, but the $69bn acquisition was blocked in April by Britain’s competition regulator.
It was concerned the US computing giant would gain too much control of the new cloud gaming market but changes have since been made to the deal.
Last month the regulator appeared to hint the deal would get the go-ahead as French game maker, Ubisoft, agreed to acquire Activision’s cloud gaming rights, rather than Microsoft.
However, there was criticism of Microsoft by the head of the CMA, Sarah Cardell;
Tactics employed by Microsoft are no way to engage with the CMAMicrosoft had the chance to restructure during our initial investigation but instead continued to insist on a package of measures that we told them simply wouldn’t work. Dragging out proceedings in this way only wastes time and money.
Cloud-based games such as Candy Crush are also owned by Activision Blizzard.
Regulators in Europe and the United States had given the green light to the merger, which had left the UK watchdog an outlier.
